I've had a lot of friends curious as to what I do for homeschooling. As a record for myself as well, I'm going to start blogging some highlights of our school days.
I've tried many different programs and don't always follow through whether to my children's disliking or to my own. I think I've finally come into a groove that works for all of us. I've been incorporating a little bit of the "Well Trained Mind", Unit Studies (love Amanda Bennett), the Charlotte Mason ideas and literature based classical education ideas (here's an LDS one I love). Oh, and I just read "A Thomas Jefferson Education" (which I don't completely agree with, but did take from it that I needed to read more classics and stop lecturing my children and start inspiring my children) So with that being said, I'll take you back a few weeks ago.....
We start out the day with eating breakfast, dressed, and picking up chores.
Then comes our unit study (usually science based, but sometimes literature) or our history (we've started American History). We started out our recent Unit Study on Botany. Incorporating Amanda Bennetts Unit Study "Gardening" and just by using Usborne's Internet linked Science Encyclopedia, we have been going through different parts of plants. For instance, at the beginning, we started out with the cell. Basic right? Well, my kids are not particularly interested in that, so we brought out the big guns..... candy! Actually a Snicker bar. Each one got the mini ones and we cut them open. Inside you can see the cell wall, the cytoplasm, the organelles, make one nut the nucleus and I had them push in a vacuole. Afterwards they had to redo what they'd learned using play dough. We then went on a walk across the street to an amazing garden and were able to explore plants. They then had to draw what they saw (Charlotte Mason idea). Ta Da! Our fun for the day.
Next it's snack and nap for Mia and then we break out the reading, writing, math, grammar, spelling, typing, piano and whatever I see they are in need of.
Reading: Each child reads out loud to me either from a book (Mollie's reading The Witch from Blackbird Pond, Benjamin is Reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) or from the McGuffey Readers, or from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Then they all of silent reading and scripture reading sometime during the day. I have a chart if they've done it they mark it off. Before they can play with friends, their chart needs to be done.
Writing: We use writing letters, writing something from History, a journal entry, Just Write
Grammar: Easy Grammar and Winston Grammar works for us. We've tried a ton of things... but these are short and can be used in game like mode. Oh, I did love First Language Lessons, but I like doing things that can be done with multiple children... I'll probably go back to that next year and let Mollie go ahead onto something else.
Spelling: Spelling Workout Mollie was up to E, but we've gone back to C to redo some of the basics. Benjamin is pretty good at spelling, and could be C or D, but I want to really enforce the basic rules. Jonah is in A.
Math: Singapore Math. I've tried Math-U-See and loved it, but we were already in Singapore and it's hard to make a switch in math... I think. So everyone is on grade level, but Mollie is 6 months behind... again, I just want to really enforce the basics. Once you get those, the rest will be easier.
Typing: Online typing
The next day we do American History... for instance, the first lesson was Vikings and then Columbus. We did map work and a timeline and the did experiments with making our own boats out of cardboard of foil and see what shape and design works the best.
Another Unit Study we're doing is on Art. I made it myself using Usborne Art Books http://www.usborne-quicklinks.com/ , Drawing with children, and Discovering Great Artists
It's taken 5 years to get in this groove. Things change, children change, and I'm sure we'll change again. But this is what we are doing for now.
